Friday, November 30, 2012

Mesa is an extremely right-wing, heavily Mormon community. This happened at Westwood High School, whose principal, Dr. Timothy Richard, 35, of Wolfeboro, N.H., came up with the punishment.
Richard has an Ed.D. in educational leadership and an M.A. in
educational leadership and administration from Jones International University [a for-profit, online-only institution] and spent four
years in military intelligence in the U.S. Air Force. From Wikipedia:

In 1999, JIU became the first fully online university in the U.S. to be accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and a member of the North Central Association. This decision caused outrage from the American Association of University Professors
on the grounds that the teaching staff had no academic freedom, and
that an institution that taught only one subject could not claim to be a
university.JIU currently offers bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs
in business and masters and doctoral degree programs in education
according to its website.

Commenters on gay blogs had a lot to say about this story.

From Towleroad: Francis: Mesa, Arizona is one of the more Mormon cities in the United States, is extremely red, and most people in the city appear to agree with the "punishment" that they view two men holding hands as being. giovanni: "if these guys were cool and wanted to get the principal back, they would have hugged and done some open mouth kissing.

From JoeMyGod: penpal: The blatant homophobia and bullying are apparent enough, but beyond that is the basic premise that two men, even straight men, showing affection for each other is taboo and to be avoided at all costs is abominable. They're not raising boys there, they're raising damaged goods.

Steve Weizman of Agence-France reports that an Israeli official announced plans to build 3,000 settler homes.

Israeli media
reports said that some new settlement construction would be in a highly
contentious area of the West Bank known as E1, a corridor that runs
between the easternmost edge of annexed east Jerusalem and the Maaleh
Adumim settlement. Palestinians bitterly oppose the E1 project, as
it effectively cuts the occupied West Bank in two, north to south, and
makes the creation of a viable Palestinian state highly problematic.

Lee Terry, Deb Fischer and Mike Johanns, who represent Omaha voters in Congress and the Senate, are staunch supporters of Israel, despite the country's continuing disregard of US admonitions about ever-escalating settlement activity that critics of Israel have called a decades-old land grab. Foreign aid to
Israel now totals at least $100-$114 billion since 1973, but the total cost of US support to Israel in recent decades may be as high as 1.6 trillion dollars, according to Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington. That's twice the cost of the US war in Vietnam, and counting.

"We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and east
Jerusalem construction and announcements. We believe these actions are
counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or
achieve a two-state solution," said National Security Council spokesman
Tommy Vietor. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said
that, despite past failures, Washington would keep trying to get
Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

The vote to recognize Palestine as a nonmember observer state was 138 in favor and nine against, with 41 abstentions. Voting no: Israel, the United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Panama and several Pacific island nations which typically rubber-stamp positions aping US/Israel policy: the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed retaliation if the vote went against Israel, released a statement saying, in part:

The
world watched a defamatory and venomous speech that was full of
mendacious propaganda against the IDF (army) and the citizens of
Israel, the statement said.

The United States and Israel oppose the Palestinian move, saying direct peace talks are the only way to achieve statehood. Israel has threatened the Palestinians with retaliation for seeking a U.N. status upgrade. It has suggested that it could withhold some taxes and customs duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. But in the wake of the latest Gaza conflict, Israel seems reluctant to reveal itself as diplomatically isolated. It has toned down threats of retaliation in the face of wide international support for the initiative, notably among its European allies. Israel may opt for harsh retaliation if the Palestinians file complaints against the Jewish state at the ICC, which U.N. diplomats say is Israel's main concern at the moment. The United States has also threatened to withhold financial aid to the Palestinians. If they join any specialized U.N. agencies, Congress will likely seek to cut off U.S. funding to those agencies in accordance with U.S. law. The United States, which pays 22 percent of the regular U.N. budget, is the biggest financial contributor to the world body.

Renesys, and now Akamai report that all Syria's IP blocks are offline. From the Washington Post:

Still, maybe one question here is why Syria didn’t do this sooner... One possible
explanation is that Syria has been far more assertive online,
using it as a tool for tracking dissidents and rebels, and sometimes
even tricking them into handing the government personal data using
phishing scams. President Bashar al-Assad has a background in computers,
unlike the much older Hosni Mubarak and Moammar Gaddafi, and once even
directly mentioned his “electronic army.” Assad’s regime may have seen
opportunity as well as risk on the Web, where perhaps the Egyptian and
Libyan authorities saw primarily a tool of the uprising. Or, perhaps the
Syrian simply feared the economic consequences of an Internet blackout,
or lacked the means to conduct it. The Syrian government has not claimed responsibility for the
blackout, so it remains possible that another group or actor is
responsible, although it’s not clear who would have the capability to
close down Internet access so widely and rapidly.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Omahans will recognize WPMI 15's anchor, who introduced the story, as former KMTV anchor Greg Peterson who left Nebraska for Mobile, AL in 2007.

Prosecutors in Mobile chose to charge Travis Hawkins with second degree assault rather than attempted murder.
They say they could not bring first degree assault charges because Hawkins did not use a deadly weapon. No hate crime charges were brought because Alabama is one of 26 states without hate crime statutes covering LGBT people.
Second degree assault in Alabama is a class C felony. First degree assault is a class B felony. Attempted murder is a class A felony.
Here are the penalties for those crimes, from the Alabama statutes:

(1) For a Class A felony, for life or not more than 99 years or less than 10 years.(2) For a Class B felony, not more than 20 years or less than 2 years.(3) For a Class C felony, not more than 10 years or less than 1 year and 1 day.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

We suppose that, if he has one, the dog of the Iowa Family Leader's Bob Vander Plaats, Fierce Defender of Marriage Against Imaginary Threats, ate the memo announcing that, since the Varnum v. Brien decision legalizing same-sex marriage in Iowa, divorces have declined to their lowest per capita level since 1968 — 7,286.Despite the fact that Iowas favor gay marriage by about seven percentage points, Vander Plaats evidently has no qualms about flogging the failed Starbucks boycott started by the National Organization for Marriage and taken up by the Family Research Council:

I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna take a look at other coffee shops and support those who support God's design for the family. Who support the freedoms that we have in this country and what makes this country so great and what we hold dear.

Larry Hagman has died at 81 in Dallas, Texas of complications from cancer, surrounded by family and friends, including Linda Gray, who played his wife on television, and Dallas costar Patrick Duffy.
He was filming a second season of TNT's sequel to the CBS prime time soap which ran from 1978 to 1991, garnering 355 million viewers worldwide at its apex — the 1980 third season opener's reveal of Who Shot JR.

USA Today

In the US, that episode got a 53.3 rating because an astounding 76% share of the nation's TV viewers — 83 million — watched CBS that night to find out that Bing Crosby's daughter Mary did the dirty deed.
Hagman was born in Ft. Worth in 1931, the son of Broadway legend Mary Martin.
In 1984, Cinema Canadarepublished an interview with famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman who confessed his fascination with Dallas:

Cinema Canada: You can be harsh towards actors.Ingmar Bergman: No! It's not like that! I only behave that way when they ask for it. When you're ill and the doctor says: 'We have to take it out,' you don't ask him to be nice, you ask him to use clean instruments, to be objective, not to be afraid, but to take it out, God, and quickly. With actors it's the same: I see there's something wrong, and I have to cut it out. Of course cutting out a rotten spot hurts. But it has to be done. The worst doctors I know are the people who make Dallas. Dallas is written badly, directed badly, acted badly and filmed badly. Dallas has no limits in its tastelessness, lack of talent and completely cynical way of handling people. (He sighs) All of it makes Dallas so incredibly fascinating.

Larry Hagman first got famous as Tony Nelson, the astronaut in NBC's I Dream of Genie. Although he loved his Dallas character, he hated Sheldon Leonard's I Dream of Jeannie scripts and was so difficult to work with that the
producers seriously considered getting rid of him and replacing him with
another actor. Darren McGavin was at the top of the list for Hagman's replacement. They even worked
out a story where Tony lost Jeannie and McGavin found her, but the
studio execs loved Hagman and wouldn't consider a change.

The fancy antique bottle in which Jeannie called home was actually a
decorative Jim Beam liquor decanter, decorated and painted with gold leaf by the show's art department.

According to Barbara Eden,
network executives and censors were unconcerned about her navel being
seen until someone casually mentioned during the third season that it
was occasionally visible when the waistband of her costume shifted.
After that her navel was required to be covered.

The famous theme music was actually not used during season one, but
since the first season was black and white, it was generally not
syndicated with the rest of the series, so few people have seen it.

In the episode "How to Marry an Astronaut", Barbara Eden's cries for help from inside the champagne bottle were real. As a prank, director Claudio Guzmán called "lunch!" and had everyone leave the set, leaving Eden trapped in
the bottle.

Jeannie's harem shoes were made by Neiman Marcus.

In one episode, Tony and Roger are working training a chimp named "Sam". This was seen as a slap at the show Bewitched, whose producers accused "Jeannie" of stealing some of their ideas.

On the show, all of the characters drove Pontiac automobiles.

Season one was filmed in black-and-white because NBC did not want to pay
for the extra expense of filming it in color (The network did not
believe the series would last beyond one season. According to Sidney Sheldon
in his autobiography "The Other Side Of Me", he offered to pay the
extra $400 an episode needed for color filming at the beginning of the
series. Screen Gems executive Jerry Hyams advised him, "Sidney, don't
throw your money away.")

"I Dream of Jeannie" was the last television series to be broadcast in
black and white. It began broadcasting "in living color" beginning with
Season 2.

Originally, Jeannie's power was activated by folding her arms followed
by a series of eye flutters. This was soon replaced by nodding her head
and blinking once.

In Season 2, sets from other famous shows are used as locations. The
most recognizable locations are the house and office featured on ABC's Bewitched plus locations from The Partridge Family and The Monkees.

The Nelson home still stands on the Warner Brothers Ranch in Burbank,
CA, where it has a new role as the Ranch Operations office. Besides
minor cosmetic changes, the house remains almost exactly the same after
nearly 50 years.

Songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote a theme song titled "Jeannie" but was rejected before the show's premiere.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Retired Royal Navy Officer Nick Crews' letter to his son andtwo daughters has created quite a stir in the UK.

There is, as you would imagine, more to the letter below. Telegraph follow-ups were published here and here.

Dear All Three

With last evening's crop of whinges and tidings of more rotten news for which
you seem to treat your mother like a cess-pit, I feel it is time to come off
my perch.

It is obvious that none of you has the faintest notion of the bitter
disappointment each of you has in your own way dished out to us. We are
seeing the miserable death throes of the fourth of your collective marriages
at the same time we see the advent of a fifth.

We are constantly regaled with chapter and verse of the happy, successful
lives of the families of our friends and relatives and being asked of news
of our own children and grandchildren. I wonder if you realise how we feel —
we have nothing to say which reflects any credit on you or us. We don't ask
for your sympathy or understanding — Mum and I have been used to taking our
own misfortunes on the chin, and making our own effort to bash our little
paths through life without being a burden to others. Having done our best —
probably misguidedly — to provide for our children, we naturally hoped to
see them in turn take up their own banners and provide happy and stable
homes for their own children.

Fulfilling careers based on your educations would have helped — but as yet
none of you is what I would confidently term properly self-supporting. Which
of you, with or without a spouse, can support your families, finance your
home and provide a pension for your old age? Each of you is well able to
earn a comfortable living and provide for your children, yet each of you has
contrived to avoid even moderate achievement. Far from your children being
able to rely on your provision, they are faced with needing to survive their
introduction to life with you as parents.

So we witness the introduction to this life of six beautiful children — soon
to be seven — none of whose parents have had the maturity and sound judgment
to make a reasonable fist at making essential threshold decisions. None of
these decisions were made with any pretence to ask for our advice.
In each case we have been expected to acquiesce with mostly hasty, but always
in our view, badly judged decisions. None of you has done yourself, or given
to us, the basic courtesy to ask us what we think while there was still time
finally to think things through. The predictable result has been a decade of
deep unhappiness over the fates of our grandchildren. If it wasn't for them,
Mum and I would not be too concerned, as each of you consciously, and with
eyes wide open, crashes from one cock-up to the next. It makes us weak that
so many of these events are copulation-driven, and then helplessly to see
these lovely little people being so woefully let down by you, their parents.
I can now tell you that I for one, and I sense Mum feels the same, have had
enough of being forced to live through the never-ending bad dream of our
children's under­achievement and domestic ineptitudes. I want to hear no more
from any of you until, if you feel inclined, you have a success or an
achievement or a REALISTIC plan for the support and happiness of your
children to tell me about. I don't want to see your mother burdened any more
with your miserable woes — it's not as if any of the advice she strives to
give you has ever been listened to with good grace — far less acted upon. So
I ask you to spare her further unhappiness. If you think I have been unfair
in what I have said, by all means try to persuade me to change my mind. But
you won't do it by simply whingeing and saying you don't like it. You'll
have to come up with meaty reasons to demolish my points and build a case
for yourself. If that isn't possible, or you simply can't be bothered, then
I rest my case.
I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

The Guardian reports that a $10.7 million lawsuit brought against Madonna by various reactionary groups for her support of Pussy Riot and gay rights during a St. Petersburg concert has been tossed out by Judge Vitaly Barkovsky, who deliberated for more than an hour
following a day-long hearing not attended by the Material Girl.
He "appeared to treat the case with
skepticism from the start. After one claimant, Vitaly Orlovsky, said
Madonna's concert would prompt the divorce rate to skyrocket, Barkovsky
asked him why he was suing no alcoholics, since alcoholism was a
well-known cause of divorce in the heavy-drinking country."
One senior official called Madonna a "moralizing slut" (which is kinda true). Among other things which are not at all true, the plaintiffs argued that Madonna's performance would
adversely affect Russia's birthrate and therefore its ability to
maintain a proper army and would therefore lead to the destruction of the nation.

Daniel Craig (who can too drive a stick!) spends a lot of time in New York, where wife Rachel Weisz lives, so he decided to get an Empire State driver's license, necessitating a five-hour driving safety course required of all aliens.
His assistant requested a special Craig-only class at the Professional Driving School of the Americas on East 23rd Street in Manhattan. The road test was taken in Staten Island.
The International film idol and popsicle model has now proven to the State of New York that he is well versed on proper turns, driving in extreme weather conditions, parallel
parking, three-point turns and understands the danger of alcohol and driving.

Similarly, I warned in May that something was seriously amiss at Mike
Bickle’s International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Grandview, MO, an
exurb of Kansas City. Part of my job is monitoring extremist
organizations, which brought me to the IHOP’s worship center at
midnight, a time I expected the cavernous hall to be practically empty.
Instead, I found a far more disconcerting scene.
Here is what I wrote on May 4:

There was a gigantic 24/7 prayer room filled mostly with teenagers,
many of whom appeared to be of high school or college age. A band played
hypnotic Christian music while the audience of 100 or so youth engaged
in a diverse set of worship rituals. Some were seated, as if they were
in a traditional church setting. Others danced and skipped, like they
were in some sort of fundie rave. One youth twirled a purple fan, as if
he were at a gay circuit party. About a quarter of the participants
walked in a trance-like state through the aisles muttering to themselves
— a practice that I had not seen before. Some of these youths walked
non-stop for over an hour, with no signs of stopping to rest. Beware Grandview and Kansas City. You have an aggressive, militant,
angry, fundie cult growing under your nose. It’s time to wake up before
you become the next Colorado Springs. Don’t be caught flat footed
wondering, “How did this happen?” Consider this your first warning...

...With
other radical cults now in the area, such as Lou Engle’s The Call and
Andy Comisky’s Desert Stream, Grandview residents might want to take a
fresh look at IHOP, before everyday seems like Halloween.

Eight teenage boys have sued him [Marsh] in recent weeks, alleging in a series of lawsuits that he supplied them with cash, cars and alcohol in return for sexual favors and performances at his office and at his home. The lawsuits claimed the boys, identified in court documents as John Does, were 15, 16 and 17 at the time... At 74, he is the only rancher in town whose windmill wears a bow tie and who has used his land and wealth as a kind of canvas for thought-provoking art. At his offices in Amarillo’s tallest building, the Chase Tower, there were no buried cars, but a visiting reporter once noted the sign by the elevator doors: “The People’s Republic of the 12th Floor.” Nearly 17 years ago, he was arrested on charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault after he was accused of threatening a high school student with a hammer and locking him in a chicken coop. The young man, 18 at the time, had stolen one of Mr. Marsh’s street signs, and he was a member of the Whittenburg family, with whom the Marsh family has had a long-running feud... In the 1970s, his name appeared on a White House “enemies list” after he wrote a letter to Pat Nixon, the first lady, about establishing a “museum of decadent art,” an entire room of which, he said, would be dedicated to her hats.

AKSARBENT warns its readers not to confuse this installation with Carhenge, a similar attraction/nuisance near Alliance, in Western Nebraska.

Kawasaki rail car facility in Lincoln, NE. As of 2011, all PATH cars were made by thecompany in either Lincoln or Yonkers, New York. NJ Transit uses cars from BombardierTransportation, the Berlin, Germany division of Bombardier of Toronto, CanadaVideo frame: Anthony Roberts, Lincoln Journal-Star

The Garden State's commuter railway parked critical equipment - including much of its newest and most expensive stock - at its low-lying main rail yard in Kearny just before the hurricane. It did so even though forecasters had released maps showing the wetland-surrounded area likely would be under water when Sandy's expected record storm surge hit. Other equipment was parked at its Hoboken terminal and rail yard, where flooding also was predicted and which has flooded before.Among the damaged equipment: nine dual-powered locomotive engines and 84 multi-level rail cars purchased over the past six years at a cost of about $385 million. "If there's a predicted 13-foot or 10-foot storm surge, you don't leave your equipment
in a low-lying area," said David Schanoes, a railroad consultant and former deputy chief of field operations for Metro North Railroad, a sister railway serving New York State. "It's just basic railroading. You don't leave your equipment where it can be damaged."

Among the most prolific filibusterers in any state's history is
former Nebraska Senator Ernie Chambers, who served a record 38 years in
the Legislature before leaving in 2008 because of newly imposed term
limits. Chambers is a legend at the unicameral statehouse in Lincoln,
where for decades he used stalling tactics to defeat or change
legislation he didn't like. In 2002, when Nebraska's Legislature adopted a new rule making it
easier to end filibusters, most observers agreed it was done in an
attempt to stop Chambers from using them. Chambers himself believes the
state's term-limits law was approved just to get him, and his delaying
tactics, out of office. It may have worked, but Chambers says he has no
regrets about the way he legislated during his career. "In the legislative assembly, where you meet for a finite number of
days, time is the most valued commodity. Whoever controls or manages
time is the one who wins," says Chambers...

...He famously blocked a constitutional amendment in 2005 protecting the right to hunt and fish by introducing amendment after amendment protecting the right to do things such as create, recreate, converse, procreate, sit on the porch and drink lemonade, laugh, cough, itch, scratch, shear and “hunt for the link between Noah’s Ark, Joan of Arc and Archimedes.”

Chambers has also amended or killed laws on fetal tissue research, marriage equality, the death penalty and abortion.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Val Chmerkovskiy, little brother of Maksim and current torch bearer of big bro's DWTS bad boy rep, was sent packing along with soap star partner Kelly Monaco after their surfer flamingo routine got the judges' lowest marks. Said Ree Hines on Today's blog:

Bruno thought it was more of a paso doble than flamenco anyway. Carrie Ann Inaba agreed, and noted that the arm lines were all off for a traditional flamenco. Given that it was a surfer flamenco -- a mishmash dance that doesn't actually exist in ballroom -- those nitpicks seemed out of place, just as the bottom of the pack scores (8, 8.5 and 9) did.

You wouldn't know it from the organization's disingenuous web site, but the Knights of Columbus has spent more than $6 million since 2005 in nasty political fights over gay marriage in state after state.

Today, a liberal Catholic organization, Catholics United Education Fund, delivered 5,000 petitions directly to the New Haven headquarters of the largest lay Catholic organization in the world, which just spent another $600,000 on whatever side of ballot initiatives in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington state would ensure that gay couples stay strangers to the law in each of those states. Alas, the Knights of Columbus bet on the wrong horse in every one of those contests.

WASHINGTON – Equally Blessed, a coalition of pro-LGBT Catholics, has released a report that discovered the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization, spent nearly $16 million since 2005 on far-right wing social issues, including $6.25 million opposing civil same-sex marriage. Of this, more than $600,000 has been donated in 2012 alone to anti-marriage equality ballot initiatives in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. The report comes immediately on the heels of a Pew Charitable Trust poll which has found a record increase in the number of Americans, roughly one-in-five, who no longer associate with any religion. Leading researchers believe these individuals are abandoning religion over the mixing of religion with right-wing political movements, such as opposition to civil same-sex marriage laws. The Knights of Columbus’ over-emphasis on divisive social issues corresponds with the appointment of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, a former political appointee of President George W. Bush. The following is a statement from Catholics United’s Executive Director, James Salt:

“At a time when so many Americans are suffering, it saddens me that the Knights of Columbus have dedicated a large portion of their charitable donations to fund a far-right political agenda. The Knights of Columbus’ work against civil same-sex marriage laws has the unfortunate effect of pushing younger generations of Catholics out of the church. Younger Catholics don’t want our faith known for its involvement in divisive culture wars, we want our faith known for serving the poor and marginalized.”

In response to today’s report, Catholics United is launching a petition drive asking Carl Anderson to cease the divisive culture war. To view our petition visit: http://www.catholics-united.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=15 To review the report issued by Equally Blessed, visit:http://www.catholics-united.org/files/knightsofcolumbusreport.pdf

Founded in 2004, Catholics United, and its educational arm, Catholics United Education Fund, are non-profit, non-partisan organizations dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition. For more information about Catholics United, follow us on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/CatholicsUnited) or on our blog at www.OurDailyThread.org.

“I think it’s long overdue for an organization with a name as
well-known as Gallup to recognize what the demographics of the American
electorate actually are and figure out why their model has continued to
skew too old, too white and less likely to be college educated than the
nation’s voters,” Benenson said. Benenson, like others in the Obama campaign high command, said the
president won on values and not on demographics, as the Mitt Romney
campaign has flagged. “The American electorate does not bounce around as if it's on a pogo
stick,” Benenson said. “If you look at the exit polls, 70 percent of
voters had made up their mind before September... Mitt Romney would have
had to have a phenomenal two months ... he would have had to won that
30 percent of voters, to make up a five point difference, by 17 points.”

Compare and contrast: In a 1995 Tokyo kickboxing match, Mike Bernardo (left) exhibits the sense of humor during a staredown with Jerome Le Banner that will probably forever remain beyond the reach of the knuckle-dragging Stufer.

Scott Sueper has a pregnant wife, a mortgage, a house and three jobs.
Now he also has a broken neck, large medical bills, a wrecked Cavalier and faces at least three months without income courtesy of Mike Wilson, who crashed into him at 16th & Sorenson last weekend.
Wilson, said the cops, was driving drunk on a suspended license. Jail officials told WOWT reporter Brittany Gunter that Wilson's priors number over 100.
If he goes to prison, he'll cost society $30-50,000 per year.
Some dudes are just really high maintenance without much return on the investment.

Moore told investigators that Bethany Deaton was drugged with Seroquel before being assaulted by members of her husband's group.

A spokesperson for IHOP said Moore was a student in the Bible school at IHOP University. The statement said Moore told an IHOP pastor at the Grandview Police Department that he video recorded the sexual assaults on his iPad, located at his apartment on College Ave.

GOP-controlled Iowa House. In Iowa, at leastDemocrats control the senate, if barely.

From Politico:The GOP went into 2012 with unified control of the governor’s mansions and legislatures in 24 states and will come out with full political control of 25 states. Democrats will head into 2013 with a disadvantage at the state level, having total control of just 13 states.

As articulated by Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, NY, at the 1:48 mark in the
video below:

Too many Republicans here in Washington, D.C. are actually defending big business. They're defending the rich. I didn't become a Republican to defend the rich. And what we need to understand is that Big Business loves Big Government because they get all the goodies from Big Government. They get less competition. The more that government grows, the more that Big Business actually benefits from the tax code and the regulations...

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin reports the arrest for possession of child pornography and other charges of Lisa Biron, an attorney "associated" (there are thousands) with the right-wing activist legal organization which now calls itself Alliance Defending Freedom but which used to be known as the Alliance Defense Fund. Biron was arrested by the FBI and charged with transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, possession of child pornography and five counts of sexual exploitation of children.Here's an example of ADF's tactics, in a smear of the ACLU's Don't Filter Me campaign which ensures that right-wing school administrators don't get away with blocking nonporn gay sites like that of It Gets Better or The Trevor Project while simultaneously allowing access to so-called "reparative therapy" ex-gay sites:

In 2009, the ADF offered free legal representation to county recorder offices in Iowa who refused to issue marriage licenses under the state’s new gay marriage law because of “rights of conscience.” In 2012, the ADF tried to short-circuit Omaha's passage of municipal LGBT antibias legislation via a state law, LB912, similar to one written in Tennessee by
the ADF, which voided Nashville's LGBT protection ordinance. LB912,
introduced by State Senator Beau McCoy of Elkhorn, died
quickly in the Judiciary Committee, thanks to Brenda Council and Brad Ashford. You can see ADF Senior Counsel, Byron Babione's testimony
urging LB912's passage below.

In its 2010 filings, the ADF told the IRS it did no political lobbying. Presumably it will not make the same claim about its activities in
2012. Or 2011, considering its actions in Tennessee.

Locally, ADF efforts have been buoyed by over $200,000 in financial support over the years by the Bill and Berniece Grewcock Foundation. Grewcock is a multimillionaire former executive of Peter Kiewit and a donor to many radical right-wing groups, including
the Family Research Council, a group so virulently (and dishonestly)
antigay that it has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Grewcocks gave the ADF at least $120,000 through 2006 and another $100,000 in 2008.

Condi Rice sold her soul. Susan Rice merely rented hers on the talk shows one Sunday in September... Writing in a 2002 book about President Clinton's failure to intervene in the genocide in Rwanda, Samantha Power, now a National Security Council official, suggested that Rice was swayed by domestic politics when, as a rising star at the N.S.C. who would soon become Clinton's director for African affairs, she mused about the '94 midterms, "If we use the word 'genocide' and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November election?" An Africa expert, Rice should have realized that when a gang showed up with R.P.G.'s and mortars in a place known as a hotbed of Qaeda sympathizers and Islamic extremist training camps, it was not anger over a movie. She should have been savvy enough to wonder why the wily Hillary was avoiding the talk shows. ...[The president's] argument that Rice "had nothing to do with Benghazi," raises the question: Then why was she the point person?

We at the RSC take pride in providing informative analysis of major policy issues and pending legislation that accounts for the range of perspectives held by RSC Members and within the conservative community. Yesterday you received a Policy Brief on copyright law that was published without adequate review within the RSC and failed to meet that standard. Copyright reform would have far-reaching impacts, so it is incredibly important that it be approached with all facts and viewpoints in hand. As the RSC’s Executive Director, I apologize and take full responsibility for this oversight. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and a meaningful Thanksgiving holiday....

Below are two salient points, the first attacking a widely accepted myth about copyright, and the second proposing one of several reforms:

...the purpose of copyright is to compensate the creator. No, it correctly notes, it's about benefiting the public:

Thus, according to the Constitution, the overriding purpose of the
copyright system is to “promote the progress of science and useful
arts.” In today’s terminology we may say that the purpose is to lead to
maximum productivity and innovation.

This is a major distinction, because most legislative discussions on
this topic, particularly during the extension of the copyright term, are
not premised upon what is in the public good or what will promote the
most productivity and innovation, but rather what the content creators
“deserve” or are “entitled to” by virtue of their creation. This lexicon
is appropriate in the realm of taxation and sometimes in the realm of
trade protection, but it is inappropriate in the realm of patents and
copyrights.

=================================

Copyright infringement has statutory damages, which most copyright
holders can and do use in litigation (rather than having to prove actual
damages). The government sets a range – which is $750 to $30,000 per
infringement – but that goes up to $150,000 if the infringement is
"willful." Evidence suggests that the content holder almost always
claims that it is willful. This fine is per infringement. Those rates
might have made sense in commercial settings (though even then they
arguably seemed high), but in a world where everyone copies stuff at
home all the time, the idea that your iPod could make you liable for a
billion dollars in damages is excessive.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Sandra: You have a responsibility to be a role model... a role model to young girls and gay and questioning men.. You need to lay off the booze... Lay off the booze... When you interrupt me, it's like interrupting Oprah... Stop sleeping with your guests. Stop it. It's beneath you. That is why I haven't done your show. I DO NOT want to sleep with you...Chelsea: Why did you hit me?

AKSARBENT has no idea whether these two presumably straight farm hands know that there really
is a gay college bar in Columbia, MO called Boner Farm. (Photo: Flickr, SkinheadSportBiker1)

Elizabeth Crips of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a new Missouri organization is close to circulating petitions making discrimination against gay Missourians illegal in the state.
Although the GOP has veto-proof majorities in both houses of the state legislature, Aaron Malin thinks Missouri voters are more liberal than their representatives on the issue.

Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, quietly signed an executive order two years ago that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation for jobs in the state executive branch. Several cities also have passed local ordinances to outlaw discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis have included sexual orientation in anti-discrimination legislation in recent years, as have Clayton, Creve Coeur, Ferguson, Maplewood, Olivette, Richmond Heights and University City. Recently, Springfield also has considered similar language. The Missouri-based gay advocacy group PROMO announced on Monday that it wants St. Louis County to update its nondiscrimination ordinance to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
Andrew Shaughnessy, PROMO’s local field organizer, said he has been in discussions with County Executive Charlie A. Dooley and members of the County Council on the issue....The Missouri House drew attention earlier this year when it passed a bill that would have made it illegal for employers to discriminate against people because they own or use guns. The measure never came up for a vote in the Senate, but several lawmakers questioned the priority of protecting gun owners when there are no similar protections for gays and lesbians.
Some Republican members of the Legislature also drew a public backlash this year for proposing a bill that would have restricted discussions about sexual orientation in public schools.

Colin Murphy, of St. Louis' Vital Voice interviewed Yariv Mozer, in town for the screening of his documentary at the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival.

Colin Murphy: How difficult was it to find the interview subjects and how did you earn their trust?Yariv Mozer: In the beginning I didn’t know that among us in Tel Aviv are
people that live in such situations. So the first man I approached was
Shaul, who is a volunteer in charge of minorities at The LGBT Center in
Tel Aviv, if you’ve seen the film. And he’s like the unofficial address
of gay Palestinians when they need an Israeli guide who will help them
or address them to other Israeli officials and things like this—he’s the
guy. So through him I got to meet several gay Palestinians in the same
situation and when I met Louie - it was very clear that I was going to
do a film because of his story and his character and I was really
emotionally attached. I felt for him and it was right after that first
meeting with him that I understood. To gain his trust was something—I’m always saying that before I’m
Israeli or Jewish, I’m gay. And Louie knew it. So the fact that I’m gay,
he was gay – this was the first thing to make the bond, to make us
trust each other. And the first time I convinced the police officers not
to arrest him – this was a turning point. It was clear that I was here
for him and I will do whatever I can to help.

Bob Vander Plaats and Tamara Scott got up to $100,000 in matching funds in their recent, failed character assasssination Jihad to remove Justice David Wiggins from Iowa's Supreme Court because he was part of a unanimous 2009 decision which ruled that denying same sex couples civil marriage licenses violated the equal protection clause in Iowa's constitution. Yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign showed up at the Washington offices of the National Organization for Marriage to request their latest 990 form. Given the pathetically small turnouts at NOM-sponsored bus tours, HRC's discovery is less than shocking:

NOM’s 2011 990 is available here.
In addition to illustrating that more than $4.7 million of NOM’s total
$6.2 million reported came from just two mysterious mega-donors, the
documents also reveal some interesting information about NOM’s closest
affiliates. For example, NOM paid $870,000 to CC Advertising – a group
HRC recently filed an FCC complaint
against for spamming unsuspecting cell phone users with anti-gay,
anti-Obama text messages. The organization also paid nearly $375,000 to
Frank Schubert, their ad guru who makes his living largely off of
promoting anti-LGBT propaganda.

The Omaha Police Union seems to be working from the hollow bullet points used by most PDs in justifying even the most outrageous, cavalier and indefensible summary pet executions.
At least the local Humane Society didn't pile on this time, as it did several years ago, when a cop entered a gated Omaha yard to investigate improper registration on a vehicle and then shot a friendly pit bull whose owner subsequently was the subject of a Humane Society complaint for "failing to restrain" his dogs.
In the latest case, the dog's walker, Chris Schulte, was thrown to the ground apprehended for having an open container and 'obstructing' police.
Despite the fact that it was an Omaha policeman who got to experience the thrill of wasting the family pet, (one of those notoriously vicious lab/golden retreiver mixes) Sgt. John Wells assured Omahans that the responsibility for the shooting of the dog rested with Schulte and not with the officer who pulled the trigger.

Letterman: Part of this Gen. Patraeus deal is, a guy investigating it for the FBI is an agent who investigates without his shirt. He likes to take pictures of himself without his shirt and shoot them around to various people and somehow he became involved in the Patraeus and the other generals and the CIA thing... and I thought: "Wait a minute, this rings a bell, oh yes, at the FBI, J Edgar Hoover used to do the same thing, except it was usually in a backless evening gown...[Man wearing sun glasses, no shirt and suit pants runs up from behind]Letterman: Oh, geez! Holy god!Fake FBI Agent: If it wasn't my day off...Letterman: Uh, huh.Fake FBI Agent: ...I'd arrest you.Letterman: Sure you would. Now get out of here. There he goes. He smelled nice.

On October 9th, Grand Island, Nebraska's fourth largest city, rejected an ordinance prohibiting discrimination in employment by a margin of 8-2, but the issue returned in the form of a scaled-down change to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in hiring for city jobs. (Grand Island currently protects gay people already employed by the city.)
This HR change passed Tuesday, 6-4, ("no" votes: Mitch Nickerson, Chuck Haase, Scott Dugan and Peg Gilbert) but was vetoed by Mayor Jay Vavricek after he called on council members to explain why they voted pro or no, provoking two council members who had previously voted "no" to switch their votes. Grand Island requires a supermajority of seven to override a mayoral veto.
In the end, after Nikerson and Haase changed sides, only Peg Gilbert and Scott Dugan voted against the override.

Maynard (Bob "Gilligan's Island" Denver) slyly flashes a nipple to the CBS eye while trying to talk his best buddy Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hick­man) into taking off all his clothes. Whoever said 1950s television was a vast waste­land obviously didn't know where to look.